Archaeologia Cambrensis

composition, had been withdrawn, at the instance of their several authors, by leave of the Committee.

The following motions had been carried unanimously:— That a Select Committee be appointed to consider the position of the Association with reference to the possibility and expediency of extending its sphere, and to report to the Annual Meeting of 1854. That the following members be requested to act as the Select Com

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The Earl of Cawdor; Sir Stephen R. Glynne, Bart; W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., M.P.; Rev. H. Longueville Jones; Thomas Allen, Esq.; Jelinger C. Symons, Esq.; C. C. Babington, Esq.; E. A. Freeman, Esq.; Rev. W. Basil Jones. That Mr. Freeman be permitted to withdraw the motion of which he has given notice, and that the Committee appointed to consider the possibility and expediency of enlarging the sphere of the Association, be also empowered to consider the expediency of allowing a composition in lieu of annual subscription, and if any, on what terms; and also to report to the Annual Meeting of 1854.

That the Rev. James Allen, M.A., Rector of Castlemartin, and Prebendary of St. David's, be elected one of the General Secretaries.5 That the next Annual Meeting be held at Ruthin. The usual votes of thanks having been disposed of, the meeting terminated.

A Temporary Museum was formed in the Grand Jury Room at the County Hall, which had been placed at the disposal of the Association by the kindness of the magistrates. The room was decorated with a series of busts, by J. E. Thomas, Esq., F.S.A., who also made several contributions to the Museum. The collection was extremely large and interesting, and we much regret our inability to give a more detailed account of it.

THE CAMBRIAN INSTITUTE.

This Association, having at length been duly organized, will issue the first Number of its Journal, to be called "THE CAMBRIAN JOURNAL," in the ensuing spring. Members who subscribe 10s. per annum will receive it gratis. Such persons as are desirous of enrolling themselves as Members of the Cambrian Institute, or of taking "the Cambrian Journal," are particularly requested to send in their names to the Publisher and Assistant-Secretary without delay.

Welsh Sketches. Third Series. By the Author of " Proposals for Christian Union." London: James Darling.

The third member is added, and now the Triad is complete. "Beyond this mystic number," our Author observes, "I shall not venture to trespass." Like its predecessors, the last volume is full of interesting matter, whilst the whole is delineated and exhibited to our view in an admirable spirit. We tender to the amiable Author our warmest thanks for the treat which he has kindly conferred upon us in his " Sketches;" and, though he has finished his present work, we trust that we shall perceive the traces of his pen ere long in another production, equally interesting, descriptive of some feature of Welsh history, society, or scenery, which he has not yet noticed.

We are delighted to see a new edition,—the ninth at least,—of our favourite Y Bardd Cwsg, more especially as it has been undertaken by a person so well calculated to do it justice as the Rev. D. S. Evans. The editorial features of the work consist mainly in a well written preface; a memoir of the author, together with a tabular genealogy, giving his descent from the family of Llyn Cywarch, continued moreover to the present day; notes, for the most part etymological; and an index of the same. This is decidedly one of the books which should be placed in the hands of Welsh students at our public seminaries; for a work exhibiting a more nervous style, or a more idiomatic phraseology, it would be impossible to meet with.

A Grammar Of The Welsh Language. By William SpurRell. Second Edition. Caermarthen: Spurrell.

We have not forgotten the satisfaction which we felt in examining the first edition of this work. The fact that it has already reached a second edition proves that it has been equally appreciated by the public at large. Nor has the author in the meanwhile been unmindful of the patronage thus bestowed upon it, for he has endeavoured to make it still more acceptable by adding considerably to the utility of its contents. The following extract will suffice to show the care and attention which the author has paid to his subject:—

"In the old bardic alphabet, Coelbren y Beirdd, there occurs a character by the substitution of which for that equivalent to g in the modern alphabet, the soft mutation of words radically beginning with g, was made. This suggests the inference that the Welsh formerly possessed a sound it has not now; and analogy leads to the conclusion that the sound in question is the vocal correllative of ch, which would be naturally represented by Oh, and can be easily produced by any Welshman who will take the trouble to observe the process followed in passing from the sound th to dd, and imitate that process with respect to ch. According to Edward Lhuyd, this sound is to be found in the Armoric, and the writer can corroborate this statement, having heard it pronounced by natives of Brittany, and that too precisely in the situation analogy would induce us to expect it, ch in Armoric being equivalent to sh, the Welsh ch is represented c'h, but he found the c'h pronounced Gh in da c'halloud, thy power, from galloud, power. The sound Gh is, by Lhuyd, said to occur in Gaelic; it is also heard in an affected pronunciation of the French, the word vraiment being often pronounced in Paris as if written vghaiment, and it is substituted for the same sound (r) by the illiterate in Northumberland and Durham, a corruption arising from the circumstance that the two sounds are produced in very nearly the same part of the mouth, while they agree in being oral, vocal, and continuous. The sound probably existed in old English words where we find the characters gh silent, as in night, a guttural sound being still retained in this word in Scotland, as well as in the equivalent German word nacht. According to Gesenius, the ain of the Hebrew, considered mute by Englishmen, bore the sound Gh; but Dr. Davies asserts it to be identical with ng."—pp. 15,16.